Understanding business logic stored in calculations and programming requires specialized training that often deprives many people in the enterprise of the ability to understand the assumptions on which decisions are based. In a corporate environment where compliance has become a multi-billion dollar industry, the consequences for lack of transparency into the composition and behavior of data have largely become intolerable. Moreover, the costs and resources required to determine and monitor the “wellness” (or lack thereof) of the company can be significant. For example, metrics involved with the generation of key performance indicators (KPIs) provide a means for assembling a scorecard to assist a company in defining and measuring corporate wellness by assessing progress toward organizational as well as corporate goals.
In one complex business analysis situation the business user needs to report on the health of a company by compiling and analyzing information over four different corporate business groups (e.g., the user needs or chooses to report on finances, customers, staffing, and employee satisfaction). Financial aspects can include net income, margins, and, profitability. Customer information can include sales, repeat sales, customer satisfaction, and product pipeline (e.g., the source of the future revenue). Upstream analysis can include assessing in terms of business processes what will result in satisfied customers and that ultimately results in financial success. Staffing assessment can include how Information Technology services are performing, for example, by facilitating employee productivity by providing the tools needed to do the work efficiently, and the success or failure in meeting deadlines, for example. Upstream analysis can include employee productivity, training, job placement and attrition.
Accordingly, the general business problem is to determine how to monitor a broad array of heterogeneous metrics and accommodate all the different permutations in these metrics for measuring success. Moreover, given a system that can address this capability, it is valuable to be able to further consider “what-if” situations to address current and future scenarios. As a means to reduce costs and resources for accessing and analyzing corporate well-being, businesses desire ways in which to provide business users a quick and easy mechanism for working with complex business processes.